Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

If you wouldn’t mind, for this little post of mine, please lend me some of your mind. Before this story to you I hail, let me warn you of this old man’s tale. Halt your turning tail, at least listen till… the end of this rather old man’s tale.

And so it began, not too recent ago. A group of man, themselves not very old. The four of them at the last count, they stick together like man and his hound.

One was Ride, who was high and thus sees every sight. The other was Side, who was there and thus always in sight. Another was Wide, who can understand whichever side. And then there was Hide, who sees but keeps to his own right.

Ride was always high, and thus needed mounts for his rounds. Side was always there, but he could only take it, for so very long. Wide felt it was wrong, yet he unknowingly be one and so did not make a complain song. And Hide, wasn’t strong, to accept what he had seen as wrong.

Then, Ride felt his calling, of which he would later be clinging. His new adventure was beginning, but before realizing, he already had himself gone tumbling.

Side, Wide and Hide came a knocking, yet there was no responding.

“What now could be happening?” Wide was enquiring.

“Perhaps he had found a new haunting,” Side frowning while replying, “To go for a new mounting?”

“So now we’re nothing,” Hide adding, “And thus it has begun the tossing?”

And so went on did the talking, to heights inconceivable it was nauseating. All the while there was no defending, for the defendant seemed to be ignoring. So worse it got the accusing, that they came in agreeing, he was at fault for the pain they are now sharing. It doesn’t take too much thinking, that they later found them three only remaining.

Began it has the subtle ignoring, so much it is a tight rope would seem less straining. Whatever happened to the good long lasting, of which all four had not so long ago been wishing?

As cliché it is to be saying this, every beginning has an ending, yet none had been thinking, so soon it would be coming.

So that was the Conflict, which blew everything off tangents. Closet skeletons were flicked, and now their friendship is mere fragments.

Would it then matter, had they found a way much better?


P.S. = This blog post was deliberately written in such style. As you can read, the post touches on an interpersonal conflict between friends, yet it was beating around the bush. The post was explaining the situation, yet it was dancing around and never explaining it clearly. It captures the feelings of the remaining three friends, to understand, to be there, and to accept and not confront directly the habits of a friend. In this situation, no one knows how to resolve the matter, other than the simple, but direct approach, which most would wish to avoid doing so.

P.S.S. = To summarize it in normal words, Ride, Side, Wide and Hide were friends. It had been noted amongst themselves that Ride was an opportunist, yet they never clearly resolved this trait of his. When Ride went on to a new environment and had to deal with it, the other three felt neglected. They felt ignored, because they do not have anything to offer him in the new environment. Lack of communication and the creativeness of the human mind lead to the breakdown of the friendship.

P.S.S.S. = This is the first time I am trying to rhyme something, and to make it worse it had to be so long. Anyway, my rhyme wasn’t good at all, as I sort of gave up on it halfway and began using pseudo-rhyming instead.

Effective Communication Skills: Why is it important?

Let’s start this first post with a question: What does effective communication mean? In my opinion, effective communication basically means communication which can convey the speaker’s intentions over to the listener without misinterpretation.

Now that I had established my interpretation to avoid a misinterpretation of an effective communication, let this post delve deeper into my mind about the importance of being skillful at communicating. A point to note, this is an example of being both not Concise and a bit unClear.

Effective communication is important for me due to this simple, albeit the most important fact, that it can Clearly convey the true message that the speaker had in mind. If the speaker were to give an ambiguous or unclear sentence due to poor skills, this would open the sentence to a wide variety of (mis)interpretation. However, in the hands (or tongues for technicalities sake) of skillful communicators, some sentences were meant to be a pun or double entendre. However, that is for another time and another post.

Besides, it is important to grasp your listeners’ attention until your story has been fully delivered. Therefore, when there is a need to speak, instead of a want, the speaker must make the story Concise. Survey shown had established that most people only listened to 25%-50% of the conversation. Therefore, it is important not to push your luck with dinosaur-stories (an example of a pun to grandfather’s story). It is improbable for a listener to exactly interpret your message if the listener was to listen to a small part of the story.

Furthermore, to be able to communicate effectively, one would be able to influence just about anyone else with their precise usage of charismatic words. How did the great leaders of modern times influenced their people to do great deeds? How did leaders calm the spirits of their embattled people in times of crisis? We’ve seen it all being portrayed in the movies. We’ve experienced it first hand when our leaders approached us indirectly during the 1997 crisis. It is through their speeches. It is through the use of words. And to deliver such words with such impact, one would need to bring it out across effectively. Of course, these leaders also followed through with action and not just plain talk. However, to put any plan into motion, one would need to mobilize whatever resources which are needed.

Therefore, while one indeed needs to walk the talk, one also needs to talk the talk so big that it may seem improbable, but possible. A talk so tall, that their walk has the room to take titanic strides, and take them to places of great heights. Oh yes, this is a case of being not Concise, but I’m just being creative with these clichéd phrases.